Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Scourge of the Super Skrull!

Those early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues of Thor often didn't need a lot of conferencing to cook up a battle issue. You generally only needed one disgruntled god of mischief:

One disgruntled, easily manipulated super-villain:

One "This is a job for...!" god of thunder:

And, voilà--a senses-shattering battle is born!

If you look at this fight another way, it's almost like Thor engaging in an all-out battle with the Fantastic Four--if the FF were disgruntled, easily manipulated villains, that is. But "almost" is the clincher there, because with the Super Skrull we get none of the interplay and teamwork we're used to seeing with the FF. For the sake of argument, though, if you imagine how the individual FF members would tackle Thor, that makes it easy for Kirby to choreograph this fight.

For instance, given his ability of flight, it's likely that the Torch would reach Thor first. Which apparently suits Thor just fine:

Then you could expect the Thing to take a hand, annoucing his presence with a "calling card" we're well familiar with:

Now that Thor's off-balance, it gives Mr. Fantastic an opportunity to enter the fray:

Which leaves Sue--and since invisibility isn't going to give her much of an advantage, her force field would be her best bet for an offensive play. Assuming Thor gives her a chance:

But, this isn't the FF--and the Super Skrull has about had it with Kirby calling his shots here. And so he decides that invisibility can make one heck of a weapon, if you know how to use it in combination with your other powers:

It's then that the Skrull decides to bring his flame to nova intensity, which Johnny Storm wouldn't normally resort to. And Thor, realizing the danger to the city, decides to dispense with the "Torch" once and for all:

As you can see, the Skrull may have bitten off more than he can chew with challenging Thor, though the alien hasn't been lacking for tactics or aggression. And he's not through yet, since he has yet to use the Thing's strength in close quarters. Sure, we know how that's going to turn out, but you have to admire his tenacity:

For all intents and purposes, it's pretty clear this battle is over. And to wrap it up, Thor dispenses a version of "Dismissed!" that's hard to one-up:

Which, if we're still going by the Lee/Kirby manual, leaves just our bitter god of mischief to return to, who we find kicking sand and vowing to strike again: